5 days
It would have taken Nathan only a few hours to create the sword constellation.
…He had been trying to coat the sword for over 5 days.
His face hardened at the realization.
Nathan was losing his grasp on reality.
The diations were supposed to make him lose his sense of ti, but not to this extent. There was no way he should mistake a few days for a few minutes.
If he could, he wouldn't have suffered in the mory world.
But he ultimately erased those thoughts.
Live
Keep Living
This was his only goal.
Everything was secondary… even his life.
"Uhm..please lea-ve!"
Katrina anxiously looked at him.
"You have b-een here for 5 days…"
Five days earlier, she found an unknown man inside her room. She was so frightened that she almost went outside.
Only she knew how horrible these past five days were.
The young man wouldn't wake up no matter what she did. She honestly felt like crying and running away.
It was more awful due to her introverted nature.
Grumble-
Nathan was about to refuse when he heard the rumbling of soone's stomach.
Katrina, who also heard the sound, blushed.
"I-I didn't eat because I was… worried about leaving the r-room with a stranger."
She tried to make excuses as her face burned from sha.
Nathan interrupted her mid-sentence.
"It was ."
"Huh?"
"The grumbling. It ca from my stomach."
The smile on Nathan's face as he spoke those words ramped up the humiliation to another degree.
Katrina's face beca hot red, and she only wanted to dig a hole and die.
"Okay… but why are y-you trespassing here?..."
She managed to eke out words in an attempt to hide her embarrassnt.
Nathan smiled before bringing out papers from his storage ring.
He passed them to Katrina.
Katrina hesitatingly took the papers and read through them.
"Mhm..I'm a first-year."
"I know"
"You won't learn much from . I'm… self-taught."
"I don't think the first part is true."
Katrina was trying to find excuses to refuse Nathan's request. It was problematic, in more ways than one.
Nathan also knew this, but he wasn't going to back down.
The papers Nathan brought out were ntor-Trainee forms.
Due to the Research Departnt's nature, it wasn't uncommon for junior-year cadets to sotis be more knowledgeable than seniors. Geniuses were called genius for a reason.
This led to an issue.
If only senior-year cadets can beco ntors, won't they be unable to take guidance from their juniors?
As said before, sotis geniuses would appear that could take the world of science and magic technology by storm.
It wouldn't be a wasted opportunity for even professors to learn from them.
Thus, Ward altered the rules for the Research Departnt a bit.
The 'senior' in the ntor-trainee relationship refers to those who have more knowledge in their fields than 'juniors'.
In this case, Nathan, who didn't know 'a' of alchemy, would be a junior of Katrina, even if she was self-taught.
'I need ether potion. For that, I need you to awaken your stigma, even if it's a year early.'
Nathan showed his pure smile to express his pure intentions.
Katrina felt a chill crawl up her spine. She looked around in fright to find the source.
A few hamburgers appeared in Nathan's hand. Walking to the table, he placed them in a clean area and walked away.
He sat in the corner, and another hamburger appeared in his hand. Without speaking another word, he started eating the hamburger.
Katrina, perplexed by his strange actions, opened her mouth…
Grumble-
…and closed it back.
The aroma of hamburgers filled the air. The sll made her hungry, but she knew better than to eat anything given by an unknown cadet.
It wouldn't be the first ti soone was trying to trick her like this. She had been through so many humiliations at the hands of others who felt superior to her.
As soone from a fallen family, her status wasn't very good.
It wasn't like the heirs of the fallen family were treated poorly. On the contrary, most of the fallen families were treated highly, as they beca fallen due to losing their strong awakeners on the frontlines or Great Disasters protecting Earth.
It wasn't all rainbows and sunshine, though. If soone talented ca from a fallen family, they receive brutal treatnt, not that Katrina knew this. She was soone untalented and an outcast.
Her own family never paid her any attention. Not when she made her first potion, not when she first got an offer to work as a potioneer, not when she was specially called by Ward on a scholarship. They were always her sisters.
Always, Always, Always, Always, Always, Always, Always, Always, no matter how hard she tried, how good she perford. She was always compared to her sister.
She was never enough for them!
Katrina lost a piece of herself whenever soone gave her a cold shoulder. She was slowly losing herself.
When Ward's scholarship offer ca, she thought she would make her family proud. She was one of the top 3 cadets on the written exams!
Katrina was on cloud nine. This ti they wouldn't turn a blind eye to her!
True to her thoughts, they praised her. She felt that it was the happiest mont of her life.
...and the worst.
The higher soone flies, the harder they fall.
Everyone congratulated her and went back to Anna.
Anna this, Anna that, however, this ti Katrina no longer had any desperation.
She lost.
Her desperation.
Her starvation for love.
Herself.
She lost...
...everything.
It was a good thing too.
After coming to Ward, it only beca worse.
Anna hated her, she hated Katrina, when others ca to know about this. They steered clear of her. No one ca to her.
No, soone did.
Those losers who felt superior by humiliating her ca regularly. They ca yesterday too, though they ran away, afraid, when the young man trespassing in her territory started swinging his sword abruptly.
And this ti...
"You can take your ti, but be sure to sign them, okay? They cya!"
The young man sat cross-legged and entered a ditative state.
"W-wait!"
Katrina lunged and tried to shake him. However, she was too late.
The young man was already in his own world.
"Ugh.."
It has been like this for the past five days.
Katrina had tried to shake him awake, but he never responded. If not for his stable pulse and continuous breathing, she would've thought he was dead.
Her pace paled.
Was he going to do it again?
On the fourth day, the young man suddenly stood up and started swinging his sword. He kept swinging and swinging and swinging for the whole day.
Katrina... couldn't describe the shock!
It was a nightmare!
"Who does that!?"
She roared and hit him on the head. It wasn't like he was going to wake up and call her out for that.
"I almost died from a heart attack!"
With no one watching her, her confidence returned like a tsunami, followed by the storm of her punches.
"Do you think I'm afraid of sothing!"
After hitting him a few more tis, her anger cald, and she sat down.
She decided to practice alchemy to cool her head.
Shortly a frown appeared on her face.
She was missing a few ingredients, however, due to the young's man presence she was hesitant to leave.
Ultimately, she decided to wait.
Though she was going to send him out the next ti he woke up, no matter what!
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